Chookiat Sakveerakul (Madiew)
Musical Romance
Director of The Love of Siam (รักแห่งสยาม)
ฝัน-หวาน-อาย-จูบ
Fan Waan Aai Joop
A one-of-a-kind Thai anthology weaving together four love stories across four genres, directed by four of Thailand's most visionary filmmakers — melodrama, comedy, action, and musical fantasy, all in one movie.
Four directors. Four genres. One film. 4 Romances brings together the creative forces of Chookiat Sakveerakul, Prachya Pinkaew, Bhandit Thongdee, and Rachen Limtrakul in a daring anthology project backed by Sahamongkol Film International. Released on Christmas Day 2008, it remains one of the most ambitious Thai films of its decade — a kaleidoscopic journey through the many faces of love.
4 Directors, 4 Takes on Love
Musical Romance
Director of The Love of Siam (รักแห่งสยาม)
Magical Romance
Director of Ong-Bak and Chocolate
Chemical Romance
Director of Art of the Devil and The Unborn
Physical Romance
Director of The Knife and Muay Thai Fighter
4 Love Stories
Director: Chookiat Sakveerakul
Screenplay: Chookiat Sakveerakul
Ton Kheaw (Janejira Jamneansri), a teenage girl obsessed with the boy band August, drifts into a vivid dream world where she embarks on a magical adventure with the band. The band members — Pichy, Naine, Non, Petch, and the rest — have made a Faustian deal with a devilish black cat named Mr. Bird and have sold their souls. Now transformed into cartoon animal creatures, with Ton Kheaw as a wide-eyed anime girl, they must escape the black cat and break the curse. The segment was filmed over six days at Thammasat University's Main Auditorium, Tha Phra Chan campus in Bangkok, drawing visual inspiration from Japanese anime and classic musicals.
Cast
Filmed at Thammasat University Main Auditorium, Tha Phra Chan, Bangkok
Director: Prachya Pinkaew
Screenplay: Chookiat Sakveerakul, Ekasit Thairat
A story that bends time and memory, Sweet follows Shane (Shahkrit Yamnarm), a hardworking middle-aged architect, and his wife Waan. When Shane insists on going on a business trip against Waan's wishes, she tells him not to come back. He goes anyway. Upon returning, he finds Waan irrevocably changed — and gradually the story peels back layers of their teenage years to reveal what broke her. The segment plays with the idea that a person's lifeline is folded in half; past and present echo each other in unsettling ways. Shot on location along Sukhumvit Soi 49 in Bangkok and in the seaside town of Hua Hin, the segment blends psychological mystery with romantic tragedy.
Cast
Filmed at Sukhumvit Soi 49, Bangkok & Hua Hin, Prachuap Khiri Khan
Director: Bhandit Thongdee
Screenplay: Ping
Tong (Kanya Rattanapetch), a wealthy city girl, travels to a remote tropical island scouting a location for her new spa resort. After an argument with her boatman, she is stranded — and discovers that her assigned tour guide is none other than Durian (Pakorn Chatborirak), her ex-boyfriend who vanished without explanation. Over the course of a tense, boozy evening with Durian's island friends, buried feelings surface. The next morning, Tong is picked up by her staff, but Durian finds her forgotten sketch pad filled with drawings of the two of them together. As a storm rolls in, he borrows a friend's boat to chase after her. The segment mixes romantic comedy with genuine emotional payoff, set against the lush backdrop of a remote Thai island.
Cast
Filmed at Remote Thai island (filmed on location in the Gulf of Thailand)
Director: Rachen Limtrakul
Screenplay: Rachen Limtrakul
Lothario, played with swaggering charm by Mario Maurer, is a serial kiss thief — he steals kisses from his friends' girlfriends just because he can. When his eyes land on Gaga, the girlfriend of his friend Beaver, things come to a head. Beaver drags Lothario to a boxing gym, and what follows is a raw, sweaty showdown where fists decide who gets the girl. Shot with the energy of a Hong Kong action film, Kiss closes the anthology with pure adrenaline — a tale of male pride, bruised knuckles, and the simplest kind of love: the kind you fight for. Also starring Apissara Tatti as Gaga and Nattapong Arunnate as a gym fighter.
Cast
Filmed at Bangkok boxing gym
Crew & Credits
Dream
Chookiat Sakveerakul
Sweet
Chookiat Sakveerakul, Ekasit Thairat
Shy
Ping
Kiss
Rachen Limtrakul
Soundtrack
Performed by August Band (วงออกัส) — the music became inseparable from the film's identity.
Fan Waan Aai Joop (Official Ost.)
August Band
Fan Waan Aai Joop [Official MV]
STAMP & Violette Wautier
Pleng Nueng (Official Ost.)
August Band
Official Trailer
Official trailer featuring the music of August Band
Behind the Scenes
The project was initiated by Sahamongkol Film executives inspired to unite multiple directors under a single thematic umbrella. Following the breakout success of The Love of Siam, the four directors each crafted their individual takes on love — working in radically different genres with no creative constraints beyond the shared title.
Chookiat Sakveerakul had the clearest vision: a musical fantasy about a girl and her favorite band, drawing heavily from anime visual language. Prachya Pinkaew, known for hard-hitting action films like Ong-Bak, surprised audiences by choosing a quiet, cerebral story about memory and marriage. Bhandit Thongdee went for a sun-drenched romantic comedy on a remote island. Rachen Limtrakul closed with a punchy, Hong Kong-style boxing brawl.
Chookiat Sakveerakul was actively involved in post-production, handling editing for his segment and overseeing continuity across four vastly different visual styles. The song Gun lae gun (กันและกัน) by August Band from The Love of Siamenjoyed a resurgence when lead actor Witwisit Hiranyawongkul performed it at the film's premiere.
A behind-the-scenes documentary aired on Thai PBSas part of the "Inside Cinema" series on December 30, 2008 — five days after the Christmas Day release — giving audiences rare insight into how four radically different directing styles were stitched into one cohesive cinematic experience.
— Adapted from Wikipedia and contemporary press coverage
Reviews
out of 10
Based on 4 reviews • 4romancemovie.com
“4 Romances is that rare Thai film that dared to break the mold by uniting four powerhouse directors under one roof. Dream dazzles with its anime-fueled musical fantasy and August Band's still-unforgettable songs. Sweet challenges with a mind-bending structure that rewards rewatching. Shy surprises with sharp social satire wrapped in a rom-com. And Kiss closes with the raw, sweaty honesty of first love. Not every segment lands perfectly, but the ambition and sheer creative range make 4 Romances an essential milestone in Thai cinema — the kind of movie you find yourself coming back to years later.”
“While 4 Romances doesn't quite hit masterpiece territory, it certainly delivers the entertainment audiences had been waiting for.”
“"Fan Waan Aai Joop" succeeds as an artistic experiment and a playful exercise in genre, but in terms of content, the four stories feel somewhat incomplete — lacking the emotional weight to make the viewer truly feel the force of love.”
“"Kiss" is the segment that fits in the least, and doesn't have enough story to justify its inclusion.”
Frequently Asked Questions
Four: Dream (Musical Romance), Sweet (Magical Romance), Shy (Chemical Romance), and Kiss (Physical Romance) — known in Thai as ฝัน หวาน อาย จูบ.
December 25, 2008 — a Christmas Day release across Thailand.
Four directors: Chookiat Sakveerakul (Dream), Prachya Pinkaew (Sweet), Bhandit Thongdee (Shy), and Rachen Limtrakul (Kiss).
Mario Maurer, Shahkrit Yamnarm, Pakorn Chatborirak, August Band, Kanya Rattanapetch, Apissara Tatti, Janejira Jamneansri, and many more across the four segments.
Approximately ฿14.7 million (roughly US$420,000) in its opening week across 95 screens, averaging ฿414,960 per screen.